Prof

I am thinking about completely removing he emergency brakes on this thing, I dont use them or tow, bed is never filled with a great deal of weight - so I think I would like to get rid of the head ache...

techrep

iTrader: (1)

No state inspection ?

TimelessR1

When you do finally pull the wheel off and check whats going on , look at both sides..if both sides are close to the same pad wear...then jsut change the rotors and pads out. If the good side still had a decent amount of pad left, than that means the side with the noise has a frozen caliper and had constant pressure on the pad against the rotor wearing it down prematurely....need to either rebuild or replace BOTH calipers then...don't just do one. Just had this issue on my commuter car. Rockauto can be your friend here ;-)

oh..and i drove with that "grinding" noise for 2 weeks...it will take a lot for you to wear through the backing plate of the pad to get to the caliper..BUT the rotor will be toast! actually since you already have grinding it is toast already.

Prof

Yah, that is my concern...I get this thing torn apart, caliper is toast, waiting for parts...can't do that.

TimelessR1

you can tell if you'll need a new caliper or not by just removing both wheels and looking. If both left and right rear wheels have the pads worn down to like a 1/16 or 2/16 of each other...then you jsut have to replace rotors and pads on both sides. If you notice that the side maknig the noise is worn down MUCH farther then the other side...then put wheels back..order a whole kit with rotors pads and calipers, and do it when you can

Prof

I expect the noisy side is warn down a lot more...but who knows.

toostroked

I agree with this, especially if it just started happening. Happened to me once.

redfishtd

Backing out of my driveway my brakes went to floor . I quickly hit the foot pedal and I stopped 5 foot from my neighbors house . It could have been worse , it could have killed someone .
You will realize what terror is when your brakes quit . Going is nice but stopping is more important .

Prof

I dont disagree, but I have suffered from the old dragging emergency brake in the past, and I think my truck also suffered from the emerg brake safety notice -

Shortly after I got this thing, I noticed one time that the rim on one of my rear wheels was hot as hell, and I was getting noise - come to find out the emerg brake was dragging - I took the wheel off and screwed the adjustment screw to where the shoes weren't touching, and left it, never to have used the emerg brake again...

I have a rebuilt spring kit for it, and new shoes coming for the emerg brakes, i just would rather not hassle with them if I have a choice...

Prof

Ok, here is what I found. Took apart the offending noisy side, got the caliper off. Passed closest to the piston is ground flat right to the steel. The back side of the rotor is trashed, steel bits every where. Front side pad is still decent? Tried to press the piston in with a clamp, and out moved a bit but was really hard to press in and finally stopped still out more than an inch. Looked at the other rear side caliper, and the other pads on the driver side are fine, I wouldn't have changed them otherwise.

So, the concensus is that the piston is frozen, and I need to do both calipers, rotors and pads, right? Should I change the lines too?

Good news is very little corrosion, very very clean. How do I rebuild the parking brakes? Getting the Motiv brake bleeder out, I am positive the hear probably killed the fluid at that corner...

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